Value-driven design with future-proofed flexibility

Orion is the largest pharmaceutical company in Finland and operates globally. Their website serves as a global business card for the most important stakeholders. The main goals with the site are to build the brand and the employer brand, convey information, and highlight Orion's innovativeness and responsibilities as a company.

Over time, the website has been updated with new sections and features, which has altered its appearance and decreased uniformity. While Orion has grown as a company, its key stakeholders have also shifted and grown. Furthermore, search engine optimization, content discoverability, and marketing were limited in the old CMS.

"The old Orion.fi website had simply come to the end of the road. The website renewal sought, above all, to change the contents, structure, and visuals, as well as review the functionalities," says Mari Lautsuo, Orion's communications manager. 

To create a website that serves business and communication goals and provides a great user experience, Knowit and Orion started with a conceptualization phase. In workshops with Orion’s various units, we focused on key strategic goals and desired target groups, to transform the needs into a concept. This information was supplemented with qualitative interviews, to map how and what information is sought on the site, and in which matters Orion can serve its target groups in a meaningful way.

Clarity was one of the key elements desired, which meant simplifying the website structure, visitor paths, and visual uniformity. All design elements and features were designed with user orientation, accessibility, and data controllability as the main goals.

The website's new visual appearance also stemmed from the many discussions about Orion as a company, its rich history and ironclad expertise in the field of innovative drug development and research. The new look went under the working name "Microbes," which respects the company's innovativeness and communicates reliability, while at the same time taking a stance against the conservative and generic design language in the pharmaceutical industry.

The illustrations for the site were created by Vesa Vuorio, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

Following the implementation, Orion has a new website where users can quickly navigate to the right information, with the fewest clicks possible. The visual concept has been welcomed by the organization and represents Orion's cutting-edge research and development work. This is a visual design that can adapt to a wide range of corporate visual needs – a complete concept that is connected to Orion’s core values, know-how, and closeness to people.

With multiple add-ons to the previous website, a need for future flexibility was foreseen. Orion's new site is adaptable and expandable. As regards the tech aspect, the site was implemented in such a way that the foundation can be used for a wide range of new needs that may arise in the future. Thanks to the combination with Optimizely DXP hosting, this means that the large organization can have several sites, which enables centralized management and better lifecycle management for online services.

The close collaboration between Knowit and Orion continues through further development. While the site was developed, the user data collected revealed further needs to be met and additional features to be developed. Next, Orion plans to renew the websites of its subsidiaries to match the look of the group website.

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